The Secret Behind the Great American Dream Jenny Xu 10th Grade

In Cold Blood begins with a death of the Clutters family, whose lives are ended with gunshots. The killers are 2 men with different backgrounds, characteristics, and reasons to kill. Capote first depicts the whole event in mystery and he exposes the truth when he feels comfortable. After months escape, Perry and Dick plead their guilty, so Capote provides a deeper analysis of both murderers' psychological problems that are derived from their childhood. Although Perry and Dick finally receive punishment and execution, in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, both of Perry and Dick have a traumatic childhood memory. Through the use of symbolism and characterization, Capote illustrates the American Dream as an achievable goal for Perry and Dick because they have their own way to complete the dreams.

Perry has a violent and tragic childhood. His father and mother were divorced, and his mother has issues with mental illness. People who know Perry always say, “Look at his family! Look at what had happened there! His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit”(175). Generally, Perry lives in a broken and fragmented family with a patient. Perry mentions that all his family members are gone and now he has no one that...